Dome Sztojay

Dome Sztojay (5 January 1883-22 August 1946), born Dimitrije Stojakovic, was Prime Minister of Hungary from 22 March to 29 August 1944, succeeding Miklos Kallay and preceding Geza Lakatos.

Biography
Dimitrije Stojakovic was born in Versec, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Vrsac, Serbia) on 5 January 1883 to a family of Serbs, and he later adopted the Hungarian name "Dome Sztojay". Sztojay fought as a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. After the war, he served in Miklos Horthy's counter-revolutionary army, and he served as the Hungarian military attache in Berlin from 1925 to 1933. From 1935 to 1944, he served as ambassador to Nazi Germany, forging strong ties between the two countries. In 1944, rather than let Germany appoint a gauleiter to govern an occupied Hungary due to Miklos Kallay's peace overtures to the Allies, Horthy sacked Kallay as prime minister and instead appointed Sztojay; he was also made Foreign Minister. As Prime Minister, he legalized Ferenc Szalasi's Arrow Cross Party, increased troop levels on the Eastern Front, dissolved the nation's labor unions, jailed political opponents, cracked down on leftist politicians and activists, and stepped up the pace of Jewish deportations during the Holocaust. In August 1944, he was sacked by Horthy after months of attempts, and Geza Lakatos replaced him. He was captured by the US Army in May 1945 and handed over to Hungary, where he was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in 1946.